Redaction and cleanup

Skill aneja5/forge-skills/skills/redaction-and-cleanup

An assembly line for AI software development. 35 skills, 11 agent personas, 29 commands. From raw idea to shipped code.

Install

npx -y skills add aneja5/forge-skills --skill redaction-and-cleanup

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

3 stars3 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

What its author says it does

Copied from the file, not written here

Use when user says "redact", "clean up for sharing", "remove sensitive info", "prepare for external", when sharing .forge/ artifacts with investors or external reviewers, when sanitizing documents before external publication, or when pricing/credentials/strategy must be removed before sharing.

SKILL.md

4.9 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Redaction and Cleanup

Overview

Prepare .forge/ documents for external sharing by copying them to .forge/redacted/ and replacing sensitive information with consistent placeholders. Original files are NEVER modified. The redaction manifest documents every change for internal reference.

When to Use

Sharing documents with investors, advisors, or partners
Preparing materials for external review or cross-validation
Publishing case studies or documentation based on internal artifacts
Any situation where internal data must not leave the organization

When NOT to Use

Documents are already public — no redaction needed
User wants to delete files — that's not redaction
The sensitive data IS the deliverable (e.g., a security audit for the client)

Common Rationalizations

Thought	Reality
"I'll just manually remove the sensitive parts"	Manual redaction misses things. Automated scan + manifest catches more
"It's fine, the recipient is trusted"	Trust the person, redact the document. People forward things
"I'll edit the originals and restore later"	You won't. Original files must be untouched — copy first, always
"Only pricing needs redacting"	Credentials, internal metrics, employee names, strategy details — audit first
"A quick find-and-replace is enough"	Inconsistent placeholders leak information through correlation

Red Flags

Original files modified in place (SAFETY VIOLATION — must copy first)
Placeholder values are inconsistent (same entity gets different placeholders)
Grep after redaction still finds sensitive terms
Manifest is missing (no record of what was changed)
Redaction categories not defined before scanning (ad-hoc misses patterns)

SAFETY RULE

NEVER modify original files in place. All redaction happens on copies in .forge/redacted/. Original files in .forge/ must remain untouched. If you are about to edit a file outside .forge/redacted/, STOP.

Core Process

Step 1: Define redaction categories

With the user, define what to redact and what to keep:

Redact (typical):

Pricing, margins, unit economics
API keys, credentials, connection strings
Internal strategy, competitive positioning details
Employee names, internal team structure
Specific customer names (unless public case study)
Internal metrics, revenue numbers

Keep (typical):

Public pricing from competitors
Architecture patterns and technology choices
General cost categories (without specific numbers)
Role titles (without names)
Publicly available data

Step 2: Define placeholder format

Use consistent, identifiable placeholders:

Company names: [COMPANY-A], [COMPANY-B] (consistent across all docs)
Prices: [PRICE-TIER-1], [PRICE-TIER-2]
People: [TEAM-MEMBER-1], [TEAM-MEMBER-2]
Metrics: [INTERNAL-METRIC]
Credentials: [CREDENTIAL-REDACTED]

Consistency rule: the same entity gets the same placeholder everywhere.

Step 3: Scan all files

Scan every file in .forge/ for matches against redaction categories. For each match, record:

File path
Line number
Original content (summary, not full text)
Redaction action (replace with which placeholder)

Step 4: Generate manifest

Write .forge/redaction-manifest.md:

Redaction categories defined
Placeholder mapping (which entity → which placeholder)
Per-file change list
Total changes count

Step 5: Copy and redact

Create .forge/redacted/ directory
Copy all files from .forge/ to .forge/redacted/ (preserving structure)
Apply redactions to the copies only
Do NOT copy .forge/redaction-manifest.md to redacted/ (it contains the mapping)

Step 6: Verify

Run grep on .forge/redacted/ for every term in the redaction categories. Zero matches required. If any remain, fix and re-verify.

Step 7: Sync check

If documents are updated later, the redacted copies are stale. Note in the manifest: "Redacted on [date]. If originals change, re-run redaction."

Output

.forge/redaction-manifest.md — what was redacted, placeholder mapping
.forge/redacted/* — cleaned copies of all documents

Verification

Original files in .forge/ are unchanged
All files copied to .forge/redacted/ before any edits
Placeholders are consistent (same entity → same placeholder across all files)
Grep confirms zero remaining matches for redacted terms in .forge/redacted/
Manifest documents every change with file and line reference
Redaction manifest is NOT copied to .forge/redacted/
.forge/redaction-manifest.md written